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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29873850">Cruel to be Kind</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless/pseuds/I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless'>I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>SCP 6532 - Mob [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SCP Foundation, モブサイコ100 | Mob Psycho 100</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - SCP Foundation, Blood, But I'm not sure whether it counts as MCD, Character Death, Dehumanization, Gen, Horror Elements, Human Experimentation, Reigen isn't exactly a good person in this, Suicide Attempt, Swearing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:14:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,817</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29873850</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless/pseuds/I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Reigen and Mob are sent on a mission to deal with another reality bender. It does not go well.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kageyama "Mob" Shigeo &amp; Mogami Keiji, Kageyama "Mob" Shigeo &amp; Reigen Arataka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>SCP 6532 - Mob [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1644904</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cruel to be Kind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One day after school, Reigen tells Mob, "I've got some big news. The Foundation has a special mission for us. You should go to bed early tonight because we're going to be flying red-eye tomorrow."</p><p>
"Where are we going?" Mob asks.</p><p>
"Area-39,"Reigen says, "It's in Japan."</p><p>
"Is it near Seasoning City?" Mob asks.</p><p>
"As far as I can tell it isn't near anywhere."</p><p>
That's probably for the best. It would be hard to be so near home when he knows he can't go back.</p><p>
The next day Mob's handlers wake him up early and lead him outside to a car where Reigen is waiting for him.</p><p>
During the drive to the airport it's still too dark for Mob to make out more than the headlights on the road ahead of them and the shadows of the pines overhead. Still he feels a slight giddiness bubble up in his chest. This is the first time he's been off site in four years.</p><p>
The airport is practically deserted when they get there. There's something strangely lonely about the large empty rooms and the shuttered storefronts.</p><p>
"I've never flown before," Mob says.</p><p>
"Ah," says Reigen, "Are you nervous?"</p><p>
Mob shakes his head. After a moment's thought he asks, "Should I be?"</p><p>
"Not at all," Reigen says waving his hands frantically as if to fan Mob's concern away. He pauses and adds, "We'll be taking one of the Foundation's private planes so it'll be a little bumpy. You might want a barf bag."</p><p>
"Is it really okay for me to be on a plane. What if I..." Mob trails off, not wanting to complete the thought.</p><p>
"Don't worry about it. I'll be right there with you," Reigen says gently, "You'll be okay."</p><p>
Mob nods and walks a little closer to Reigen.</p><p>
The plane ride is long and blessedly uneventful. Looking out over the vast expanse of the ocean beneath them Mob feels tiny and insignificant. It's nice in a way.
When they reach the airport Reigen buys the two of them lunches that they eat on the drive to area-39.</p><p>
Reigen explains the mission while Mob looks out the window watching the landscape. They've been called out here to deal with SCP-6444, a reality bender who went off the deep end after his mother died. The Foundation keeps him in an induced coma but even now he causes the Foundation a great deal of trouble. </p><p>
Their destination, area-39, is a squat, unremarkable building in a forested area surrounded by dead plant life.</p><p>
The minute Mob enters the building he stiffens.</p><p>
"What's wrong?" Reigen asks.</p><p>
"Can't you feel it?" Mob asks because surely even a normal person can feel the anger-sadness-hate-hate-hate saturating the building.</p><p>
"It is a bit ominous I suppose," Reigen says thoughtfully, "All the more reason to get this over with as soon as possible." </p><p>
A nurse greets them. Her name tag reads Fujita, "You're from the Foundation aren't you?"</p><p>
"Correct," Reigen says, "What is the patient's condition?"</p><p>
"It's stable," Fujita says, "He's not getting worse but he's not getting any better either."</p><p>
The burning hatred gets more intense the deeper they venture into the facility. When the reach 6444's room it's almost nauseating. Mob doesn't understand how Reigen can't feel it.</p><p>
Fujita leads them to a room with a hospital bed. A man, who must be 6444, lies in the bed hooked up to a variety of machines. If it weren't for the steady heaving of his chest he could be mistaken for a corpse.</p><p>
When they walk in 6444's rheumy eyes snap open and look straight at Mob. They're full of anger-sadness-hate-hate-hate. The lights go out plunging the room into darkness.
When the emergency lights kick in the man's eyes are closed again.</p><p>
"Sorry. This happens quite a lot," Fujita says, "I think the building might have been wired wrong. Stay put. I'll be right back."</p><p>
Mob and Reigen are left alone with 6444.</p><p>
"This was you wasn't it?" Reigen says to 6444, "Listen I know you're not happy to see us but that doesn't give you any right to cause trouble like this."</p><p>
6444 says nothing. By all appearances he is asleep. This does not discourage Reigen who continues to animatedly talk at him, "Oh come on, I know your just pretending to sleep. I saw you frighten my assistant earlier."</p><p>
Reigen is interrupted by Fujita's voice from outside, "Reigen, could you please come help me with something? It'll only take a minute."</p><p>
"Sure!" Reigen says and goes to help her. Mob waits for him in the dim glow of the emergency lights listening to the rhythmic beeping of medical equipment and the slow, heaving breaths of the man in the bed.</p><p>
The lights come back on and Fujita returns shortly after.</p><p>
"Where's Doctor Reigen?" she asks clearly puzzled.</p><p>
"Didn't you ask him to come help you?" Mob says equally puzzled.</p><p>
"No," Fujita replies, concern creeping into her voice, "Oh dear, did I manage to lose another one?"</p><p>
"What do you mean?"</p><p>
"The people from the Foundation tend to disappear. This would be the fourth disappearance since I started working here."</p><p>
Mob grips his reality anchor so tightly his hands hurt, "Where do they go?"</p><p>
Fujita shrugs, "I don't know. I'm sorry. He was quite close to you wasn't he?"</p><p>
Mob nods doing his best to not consider the implications of her apology. His chest hurts like something is trying to dig it's way out.</p><p>
"Do you need help getting home?" Fujita asks.</p><p>
Mob shakes his head. He can't leave without Reigen.</p><p>
Mob walks up to the door. There's something strange about it. It leads into the hallway but it also leads somewhere else. A place that isn't a place. A tiny universe full of anger-sadness-hate-hate-hate.</p><p>
Mob opens the door. Behind it is a long white hallway that would fit right in back at site-17. Distant wails echo from the cells he passes.</p><p>
"Reigen?" he calls out like a child searching for a lost pet.</p><p>
A man steps in front of him. He's not Reigen.</p><p>
The man in front of Mob is a younger version of the one in the hospital bed. His greasy, shoulder-length hair is dark brown instead of and grey and his cheeks are not as hollow. Livid red marks form a ring around his neck.</p><p>
"Greetings Kageyama Shigeo," SCP-6444 says, "I was not expecting you to break in. This place isn't exactly easy to walk into uninvited."</p><p>
Mob's eyes widen. Nobody has called him by his given name in years.</p><p>
His surprise does not escape 6444's notice, "Would you rather I call you Mob, 6532,<em>Bixby?</em>" he practically spits the last one.</p><p>
"I don't care what you call me," Mob says, "I came here to bring back Reigen-shisou. Please just let him go and I won't bother you anymore."</p><p>
"Reigen is a part of your beloved Foundation and I therefore consider him mine to dispose of as I see fit."</p><p>
"I don't want to hurt you," Mob says, "Please stop causing everyone trouble."</p><p>
"What? And go back to being the Foundation's pawn? I'd rather die."</p><p>
"The Foundation isn't so bad," Mob replies, "They've been kind to me."</p><p>
"You wouldn't say that if you knew the truth about them. All the awful things they've done and all the awful things they let others do," 6444 stares at Mob with a sort of disgusted pity, "They're only kind to you so they can use you. They don't care about you."</p><p>
"Reigen-shisou cares about me."</p><p>
"Reigen is a coward and a liar."</p><p>
"Reigen-shisou is my friend. Give him back," Mob says, keeping his voice level.</p><p>
"Your 'friend' lied about sending those letters you gave him to your brother," 6444 says.</p><p>
"Even if that's true that doesn't mean you can kill him. Give him back," Mob says, his voice dropping to a growl.</p><p>
"And if I don't?" 6444 asks.</p><p>
"Then I'll find him myself," Mob reaches out. Arms extend from the walls and floor of the hallway and grab onto 6444 pulling him aside, "I won't let you stop me."</p><p>
As Mob walks past him, 6444 says, "You're foolish to let the Foundation contain you. I doubt anyone could stand against you-" Hands grab Mob's ankles and he almost trips, "-In the outside world that is. This is my world so I think you'll find the rules are different. Here, I have complete control."</p><p>
The arms holding 6444 to the wall release their grip and more arms rise up from the floor dragging Mob down. Mob tries to make them let go but his powers refuse to work. Mob struggles against their grip but he lacks the physical strength to break it. 6444 walks toward Mob and says, "It is indeed a shame that your beloved Foundation rendered one such as yourself so pitifully subservient. Maybe you'll change your mind once I show you their true face." He puts his hands over Mob's eyes almost gently. Mob suddenly finds himself too tired to struggle any longer. Sleep descends on his mind like a curtain.</p><p><br/>
<b>Keiji is seven when the GOC finds his family. He doesn't understand what happened that night until much later. All he remembers is his mother dragging him from bed and telling him to run. There's no time to grab his things. His mother practically drags him out the back door. They run and don't stop running for a very long time. When they reach the outskirts of town his mother uses her powers to unlock and start the first car they come across. When they finally come to rest in a ratty motel room Keiji asks where his father is and in lieu of an answer his mother breaks down crying.</b></p><p><br/>
SCP-6532 wakes up. He takes a cold shower, making sure to finish quickly since the water turns off after five minutes whether he's done or not. Then it's time for breakfast. As usual, breakfast is a bland, mushy paste with a vaguely chemical aftertaste.</p><p>
When he's done he gets back into bed closes his eyes and waits to go back to sleep.</p><p>
He sleeps a lot these days. There's not much else to do.</p><p>
6532 can't remember much about his life before the Foundation found him. It's like a drawing that has been sloppily erased leaving only disconnected bits and pieces to reconstruct the original picture from. He knows he had a name once because he remembers being a person and people have names. He knows he had a brother because he can remember hurting him and how guilty he felt afterwards. He thinks that might be how he stopped being a person.</p><p><br/>
<b>Life on the run is stressful and unpredictable. At first they sleep in cheap motel rooms. Later once their funds have dwindled they sleep in whatever stolen car his mother is currently driving parked in empty campgrounds or other remote locations. They've had more close calls than they'd like. Even if they could do this forever (which they can't) they wouldn't want to.</b></p><p>
  <b>
They come to the Foundation to stop running. Keiji quickly decides he doesn't much care for the place with it's blank, white walls and long, echoing corridors. Still his mother says they'll be safe here.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
"We won't have to run anymore, the Foundation will protect us. You just need to be good," She smiles but her grip on his hand is shaking, "Please be good."</b>
</p><p><br/>
Reigen's not sure why he's so nervous. After all, isn't this what he wanted? A chance to prove his mettle by working with a dangerous anomaly. Still something about this feels very wrong.</p><p>
He pushes aside his apprehensions and enters SCP-6532's cell. 6532 is huddled on his bed when he comes in. </p><p>
"Are you awake?" Reigen says.</p><p>
6532 nods and extricates himself from his blankets to reveal a nondescript teenager with long black hair and glazed eyes. There's something unsettlingly familiar about him. They stare at each other for a long moment.</p><p>
Finally Reigen regains enough of his composure to say, "So kid, you're going to participate in an experiment today. Isn't that exciting?"</p><p>
"Not really," 6532 says, which is probably a fair assessment given that today's experiment consists of putting him in a sensory deprivation tank for several hours and monitoring the hume levels in his surroundings.</p><p>
"I'm sorry but you'll need to wear these," Reigen says taking out a pair of handcuffs and a blindfold, "I'll just put these on you and we'll be on our way."</p><p>
Reigen attempts to bind 6532's hands. The handcuffs slither out of his grip and into a corner.</p><p>
The handcuffs rattle menacingly at Reigen as he approaches them. When he tries to pick them up they strike, drawing blood.</p><p>
"Why'd you do that?" Reigen asks incredulous.</p><p>
"I didn't do it," 6532 says, clenching his fists.</p><p>
"Who did it then?" Reigen asks.</p><p>
"I don't know," 6532 says hesitantly.</p><p>
Reigen pries the now limp handcuffs off his wrist, wincing when he sees the cuts left behind, "Listen kid, I know it's frustrating having so little control over your life but it's not okay to take your frustrations out on other people," he says, taking bandages from the fannypack around his waist to tend his wound with, "That's not okay for anyone to do but you're powerful enough to end up hurting someone really badly."</p><p>
6532 nods slowly and puts out his hands. </p><p><br/>
6532 quickly discovers he doesn't like the sensory depravation tank very much. When he's in it the only proof that the outside world still exists is the steady deadness of the reality anchors surrounding the tank. Other than that it is like being suspended in an endless void, utterly alone. 6532 doesn't cry or struggle or let himself feel afraid. He simply hangs there and tries not to consider what the nothingness around him might be hiding. He doesn't know how long he spends like this but it feels like a very long time.</p><p>
After a while a figure standing over him fades into view. It's a man in a jumpsuit much like his own with unkempt shoulder length hair. A noose is tied around his neck.</p><p>
"Who are you?" 6532 asks, trying to keep his breathing steady.</p><p>
"My name is Mogami Keji," the hanged man says, "Can you tell me yours?"</p><p>
"I'm SCP-6532."</p><p>
"Not your item number," Mogami says, "Your real name."</p><p>
"I'm sorry, I don't remember," 6532 says.</p><p>
"That's okay. Even if you've forgotten your own name I still know who you are," Mogami says cryptically, "You see, I know a lot of things. I can tell you things that your beloved Foundation would never want you to know. In fact that's the reason I'm speaking to you today."</p><p>
"Why?" 6532 asks, puzzled.</p><p>
"Because even in this world where the Foundation has taken everything from you, you still blindly trust them and allow them to use you. You wouldn't do that if you knew how much blood they have on their hands."</p><p>
"I don't understand,"6532 says, "Doesn't the Foundation exist to protect people?"</p><p>
Mogami laughs bitterly, "The Foundation exists to protect normalcy. They've sacrificed countless innocent people for the sake of this pursuit and they're willing to sacrifice countless more. Human life is worthless next to their precious normalcy."</p><p>
"What do you mean?" 6532 asks.</p><p>
"Tell me child, have you ever heard of the Ichabod Campaign?"</p><p>
"I haven't,"6532 says softly.</p><p>
"Let me tell you about it then. When I was a child the Global Occult Coalition decided that type-green reality benders, like me and my parents, were too dangerous to let live. Innocent and guilty alike were hunted down and slaughtered often in their own homes. They killed children newly awakened to their powers to make sure they would never have the chance to become a threat. And what did your beloved Foundation do to stop this?"</p><p>
"I don't know," 6532 says in a small voice.</p><p>
"Practically nothing. The Foundation looked the other way and let us die because it was convenient for them," 6532 can feel hatred radiating from Mogami like heat from a fire, "What's more it's because of the Foundation that the Ichabod Campaign will soon return in full force. Do you know why?"</p><p>
6532 shakes his head.</p><p>
"Of course you wouldn't," Mogami says with a self satisfied air as he reaches down to touch the reality anchor hanging from 6532's neck, "Let me put it this way, do you know what reality anchors are made of?"</p><p><br/>
Reigen hurriedly fumbles with his phone to pause the podcast he was listening to and rushes to check on 6532 as the hume levels in the tank fluctuate wildly. Everything seems normal enough when he gets there aside from a sickly iron smell emanating from the sensory isolation tank. Reigen opens it to find 6532 floating in blood instead of water. Reigen understandably freaks out and pulls 6532 from the tank. He doesn't seem hurt despite the blood soaking his clothes and hair.</p><p>
"You could ruin the tank like that, you know," Reigen scolds, "It's not made for blood."</p><p>
6532 doesn't say anything. He just stands there blood dripping from the ends of his hair, staring straight ahead.</p><p>
"We should probably get you back to your cell so you can wash that blood off," Reigen says, scrunching his face up in disgust as he uses a paper towel to clean some of the blood out of the teen's hair so they don't leave a trail of it all the way back to his cell.</p><p>
6532 nods slowly.</p><p><br/>
6532 thinks about what Mogami told him as he showers, trying to wash as much blood as he can from his body in five minutes. While he eats his dinner of pulpy, flavorless mush. While he lies in bed staring up at the ceiling of his room. It's not that he wants to think about it but no matter how deep he tries to burry this new and terrible knowledge it keeps clawing its way back to the forefront of his mind. </p><p>
He doesn't look at the reality anchor around his neck and every time he finds himself running his fingers over its contours to soothe himself he pulls his hand away as though burned. He can't think of it the same way anymore now that he knows what it is. What it <em>was.</em></p><p><br/>
<b>The Foundation doesn't let him see his mother much and there isn't much to do so Keiji spends a lot of time Inside. Out in the world he is weak but Inside he has complete control. There he builds a perfect recreation of his childhood home and when the GOC agents come he calls down crows from the sky to tear them apart or turns the ground beneath their feet to quicksand. Afterwards, his family thanks him for saving them and they go back to living happily together without a care in the world. He tries not to look at his father because he can't remember what the man looked like.</b></p><p>
  <b>
The Foundation is interested when he makes the mistake of telling them about Inside. They don't believe him until he opens a door to it. Predictably they send in one of their D-class to investigate. Keiji watches in his mind's eye as the man in the orange jumpsuit walks through the rooms of his old house. A thousand thousand multicolored threads swirl around the D-class. Keiji chooses the thickest thread and pulls on it experimentally. His mind is flooded by the feeling of a warm neck under squeezing fingers and the light gradually draining from desperate, pleading eyes and a red hot fire of rage that consumes everything in its path and destroys everything it touches.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
Keiji drops the thread. His assigned researcher is staring at him. "Did something happen?" she asks.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
"I saw something,"Keiji says, "That man you sent Inside is a murderer."</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
"I know," she says smiling, "He was brought here as a punishment. Can you tell me anything else about him?"</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
Keiji nods and reaches out towards another thread to see what he can find.</b>
</p><p><br/>
One day as Reigen leads 6532 back to his cell after an experiment he thinks to himself<em> huh, this hallway is a lot longer then I remember it being.</em> This gradually transitions into <em>is this building even big enough to contain a hallway of this length?</em> and then <em>I'm definitely not imagining things we've passed the same stain on the wall three times there's something fucky going on here.</em></p><p>
It occurs to Reigen that this unusually long hallway might be 6532's doing. It's a definite possibility since 6532 is a reality bender and an incredibly powerful one at that. Isn't screwing with the spacetime continuum kind of their thing? Perhaps this is just 6532's idea of a prank.</p><p>
Reigen becomes increasingly aware of 6532's gaze boring into the back of his neck. "You're very sweaty. Is something wrong?" the teen asks flatly.</p><p>
Reigen bursts out in a fit of nervous laughter, "You really got me with this endless hallway trick. Can you make it go back to normal now? Please."</p><p>
6532 blinks slowly, "I don't know what you're talking about."</p><p>
"Come on," Reigen says, "It was funny at first but I need to get you back to your cell."</p><p>
"This isn't me," 6532 says. After a thoughtful pause he adds, "At least I don't think it is."</p><p>
Reigen doesn't buy it. It's just too much of a coincidence for a spatial anomaly like this to just happen to manifest in the facility where 6532 is being kept.</p><p>
As Reigen passes that now familiar stain once again he says, "Look, I understand if you don't want to go back to your cell. There's not a lot to do in there. But that doesn't mean you can trap us in a hallway forever."</p><p>
Upon saying this the weight of his situation settles in. This is different from his usual assignments to relatively harmless children. What's stopping 6532 from trapping them in this hallway forever?</p><p>
The hallway finally ends. This is less of a relief then it should be.</p><p><br/>
Back in his cell 6532 reflects on the incident. The red-headed man's lack of confidence in him bothers him more than it should.</p><p>
"He never believes you, does he?" Mogami asks.</p><p>
"He doesn't,"6532 says, "Why?"</p><p>
"He knows that what he's doing to you is wrong but as much as he fears you he fears the Foundation still more. Thus he continues to mistreat you even as he anxiously waits for the day you turn on him. I don't understand why you haven't yet. You could kill him so easily-"</p><p>
"I'm not a killer,"6532 says as he stares at his hands. They're shaking, "I don't want to be a killer."</p><p>
"You might have to become one to escape this place."</p><p>
"Then I won't escape."</p><p>
"Are you truly willing to spend the rest of your life like this? Just to spare a man who doesn't deserve to live?"</p><p>
Mogami leaves before 6532 can answer.</p><p><br/>
Reigen's days settle into a routine. Go to work. Perform whatever experiment the Foundation has decided to do on 6532 that day. These can be as straightforward as monitoring 6532 brain activity while using his powers or as bizarre as hanging 6532 from the celling by one ankle for three hours. Go through a series of rigorous hume-level checks to make sure that 6532 hasn't made any alterations to him during their time together. Go back to his apartment. Debate the pros and cons of quitting his job while smoking a cigarette or several to distract him from the guilt. Pros of quitting: he would no longer have to perform ethically questionable science experiments on a fourteen-year-old who could kill him at anytime. No more wandering through the hallways of site-39 wondering if they've rearranged themselves or if his mind is simply playing tricks on him out of guilt-fueled paranoia.</p><p>
Cons: This job pays well and keeps his mother off his back. He doesn't remember what job she thinks he has but it's apparently respectable enough for her standards. If he quits she'll never let him live it down. Secondly, this assignment is only temporary. Just a few more months and he'll go back to helping young, low-risk humanoids adjust to containment and grief-consoling to Foundation kids. He probably won't seek career advancement again if this is the sort of thing he needs to do to get it. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, even if he quits nothing will change. The Foundation will just bring in someone else to do unethical science experiments on 6532 and they might not be as nice as him.</p><p>
Each time Reigen ultimately decides to stay. There's not a lot he can do about the situation either way. To the Foundation 6532 is at best a potentially useful tool and at worst a barely containable monster. There's no way they'll ever see him as a person.</p><p><br/>
<b>Years pass. The Foundation sends Keiji its enemies. Inside where he is strongest he pulls the secrets from their minds. This skill earns him an uneasy respect.</b></p><p>
  <b>
One day they come to him bearing bad news about his mother. She was injured on a mission. The wounds shouldn't be fatal, but despite the Foundation's best efforts refuse to heal and her condition has rapidly deteriorated.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
Keiji's mother turns to him when he walks in. She's a dried out husk of her former self.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
"Keiji," she rasps, her voice as desiccated as the rest of her.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
"I'm here, Mother," Keiji says softly.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
"I'm going to go see your father," she says, "I wish I'd never brought you here. I should have never let you wake up that night the GOC found us. That way you could have died innocent, at least."</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
Keiji watches the light leave her eyes. There's nothing else he can do.</b>
</p><p>
  <b> 
His mother's death leaves Keiji angry. Angry at his mother for dying. At himself for being powerless to save her. At the GOC for killing his father and driving them into hiding all those years ago. At the Foundation for letting them.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
He realizes these defenders of normalcy have taken everything from him. He wants to make them pay.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
To do this he turns to a ritual learned from one of the Foundations many enemies. After making sure the cameras in his room will show nothing out of the ordinary he hangs a noose from the ceiling. Next, he bites a finger until it bleeds and draws the signals on the walls with his blood. There are no chairs in his cell so he stands on his bed and puts the noose around his neck. He offers himself up completely, body and soul. He offers his body in exchange for the destruction of the Foundation. He offers his soul in exchange for the destruction of the Global Occult Coalition. </b>
</p><p>
  <b>
He steps from the edge of his bed to complete the transaction.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
In the end he can't even die properly. Maybe he used too long a rope. Maybe some treacherous part of him still clings to this worthless life. He hangs there slowly suffocating until the Foundation staff find him.</b>
</p><p><br/>
The experiments get worse. Reigen feels sick with guilt but what can he do? If he doesn't do it somebody else will. He repeats this to himself this through the tests of 6532's ability to metabolize certain drugs. The tests of 6532's pain tolerance. The tests of 6532's healing ability.</p><p>The tests that someone else will do if Reigen doesn't.</p><p>
He repeats this to himself until it loses all meaning. What else can he do?</p><p><br/>
One day as Reigen leads him back to his cell 6532 asks, something dark leaking into his voice, "Why do you keep doing this to me?"</p><p>
"Because it's my job. I don't like doing this either but it's what the Foundation wants me to do. If I don't do it, then someone else will."</p><p>
Something in the air <em>shifts</em>. Arms reach up from the floor dragging Reigen to his knees. Reigen looks on in horror as 6532 breaks his handcuffs with a <em>crack</em> like bones shattering and the blindfold covering his eyes falls away.</p><p>
SCP-6532 laughs, a broken, breathy sound, devoid of humor, joy or hope. Reigen realizes he's never heard 6532 laugh before. This revelation is more shocking then it should be. "So you don't even know why you're doing this," 6532 says, the walls around it turning black as they corrode and the scent of battery acid fills the air, "All this time I thought you must be doing this to me for a reason. Like something bad I did, or something you wanted from me, or-" he lets out a small sob "-even just because you really hated me, but it turns out it was just because the Foundation told you to."</p><p> 6532 walks past Reigen's ensnared body, black corrosion spreading from where his feet touch the ground, "You really are a coward," he says in a voice filled with cold anger. </p><p>
"Wait-" Reigen calls after 6532. He doesn't know why. Maybe he wants to try to explain himself, maybe he just doesn't want to be left alone. It doesn't matter. 6532 doesn't even slow down. Reigen's hands act on their own drawing his gun and shooting it at 6532. It misses to his great relief but 6532 whips around to face him fury in his eyes. Reigen's gun crumbles to rust in his grip. Reigen panics, "I'm sorry Mob I don't know why I did that-" he blathers. </p><p>
"Mob..?"<strike>6532</strike> Mob says quizzically. His anger abates somewhat replaced with confusion.</p><p>
Mob is at Reigen's side in an instant,"Reigen-shisou, I remember now." </p><p>
Reigen remembers too. They're mostly nice memories of a friendship filled with so much trust that Reigen wants to vomit from the guilt of betraying it.</p><p>
"I-I'm so sorry Mob," Reigen says, his voice thick with sadness, "I know that's nowhere near enough but-"</p><p>
"We'll talk later," Mob cuts him off, "I need to get us out of here before he makes us forget again."</p><p><br/>
Mob leads Reigen toward the doorway back to the real world. He can feel it in the distance like a deep sea diver can sense the surface. The hallways twist and turn trying to steer him away from the exit. Mob forges his own path for the two of them disregarding any walls in the way. MTF agents try to shoot them. The bullets never reach their targets. Just when it looks like they will be able to escape unscathed a group of MTF agents block their path. They're holding a spikey haired boy with a gun to his head. The boy looks pleadingly into Mob's eyes. It's Ritsu.</p>
<p>"6532 stop this or your brother get's it." </p>
<p><em>This isn't real</em> Mob tells himself.</p><p>
"Please nii-san,"-Ritsu's voice is trembling. (<em>Not real not real</em> Mob repeats to himself. It doesn't help much.)- "I'm scared. You won't let them kill me, will you?"</p><p>
Mob lurches forward "Ritsu I-"</p><p>
In a single fluid motion the agent takes the gun away from Ritsu's head and shoots Mob instead. There's a moment of intense pain and then everything goes black.</p><p><br/>
"This can't be happening..." Reigen rushes over to his student's limp body, "Don't die on me, Mob."</p><p>
"He's not completely dead yet," A voice comes from behind him. Reigen turns around to see SCP-6444, the spitting image of the picture in his containment file save for the livid red marks circling his neck, "I'll let you trade your life for his."</p><p>
6444 puts a hand on Reigen's shoulder.</p><p>
Just then Mob's hand tightens around Reigen's wrist. His grip is cold and vicelike. Mob stands up jerkily (or at least something shaped like him does).</p><p>
"So this is your true form," Mogami smiles, "You continue to defy my expectations, Kageyama Shigeo."</p><p>
Mob (or at least the thing shaped like him) opens eyes that glow pure white with power and the world around them is snuffed out like a candle and 6444 along with it.
The ground disappears from beneath Reigen's feet and he clings desperately to the thing he hopes is Mob when he realizes that the hand around his wrist is the only thing keeping him from falling into a bottomless abyss.</p><p>
There's something in the darkness surrounding them. Something vast and ancient and angry. It lashes out at them. The last thing Reigen remembers before passing out is Mob (or at least the thing shaped like him) pushing it aside in a burst of static.</p><p><br/>
The next thing Reigen knows he's waking up on an uncomfortable pallet. There's a ring of bruises around his wrist where Mob or whatever that thing was was holding on to him.
Mob's standing next to his pallet looking nervous.</p><p>
"Oh. Master Reigen, you're awake. That's good."</p><p>
A nurse, Reigen recalls the name Fujita, rushes over to him, "Thank goodness you're alright. Your son was really worried about you."</p><p>
"My son? You mean Mob? Mob's my assistant not my son. Do I look old enough to have a fourteen-year-old son?" Not to mention that he doesn't deserve to be mistaken for Mob's father after what he did to the boy in the other world.</p><p>
"I have some bad news," Fujita says changing the subject, "The patient died while you were gone."</p><p>
The light overhead flickers frantically threatening to go out.</p><p>
"You should really get your Foundation to send someone to check the wiring here. It's probably a major fire hazard."</p><p>
"Yeah," Reigen says absently, "Anyway can we back up for a second here? The patient died?"</p><p>
Fujita nods, "He flatlined shortly before you got back. I'm sorry."</p><p>
"Don't be," Mob says, staring unwaveringly at Fujita, "It's not your fault."</p><p>
"Don't worry, you performed quite well given the circumstances," Reigen says, "The Foundation will send someone to dispose of the body."</p><p>
They'll probably want it for scientific purposes.</p><p><br/>
"Reigen-Shisou," Mob says on the flight back, "I'm sorry for almost killing you."</p><p>
"It's alright he forced you to do it, didn't he?" Reigen replies.</p><p>
Mob shakes his head, "He didn't force me to do anything. I don't think he could. I think that's why he was trying to get me to want to kill you. What did he force you to do?" </p><p>
He asks this last part with so much hope in his voice and Reigen realizes he's being given an out. It would be so easy to say that he'd had no control during those six long months and everything could go back to normal between them. Maybe he could even convince himself of that and forget the horrible knowledge how far he was willing to follow orders. But he knows that after everything he put Mob through he owes him his honesty on this at the very least , "Surprisingly little. Try to shoot you, I guess."</p><p>
They spend the rest of the flight back in awkward silence.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>We've reached a turning point, folks.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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